Just look at how traumatized she is! Although there was no need to SA Alicent again, and I'd rather the writers have avoided this scene altogether, it proves beyond doubt that Alicent is an abuse victim and has spent her entire life being violated and directly or indirectly having her body used and abused by others:

(1) Otto first instrumentalized her body, comparing her to her mother and dressing her in her clothes before sending her to (2) Viserys, who did the same when he had her wear Aemma's nightgown, turning her into a replacement for the woman he had lost. (3) She gave her body to the Crown by sleeping with Viserys and bearing Targaryen heirs, all the while suppressing her own wants and anxieties until they (4) manifested as self-harm through her skin-picking. (5) Larys exploited her, coercing her into exchanging access to her body for information. When she finally believes she has found a measure of happiness in a consensual relationship with Criston, (6) Daemon's murder of Jaehaerys becomes her punishment for daring to serve her body, (7) which she then subjects to a painful abortion. Conditioned by years of Larys' abuse to see her body as a political transaction, (8) she later offers part of it again to Aemond, capitalizing on his desire for her. And now, just as she's preparing to flee King's Landing, she is once again reminded that her body is not hers, as (9) Jasper can just as easily march into her chambers and take it away.

Merely numbering the instances when Alicent's body belonged to someone other than herself makes me further realize how traumatizing her life was. No wonder S1 Alicent was so resentful of Rhaenyra's freedom. She watched Rhaenyra exercise a bodily autonomy she herself had never known: Rhaenyra could do as she pleased with her body, sleep with whomever she wanted, and even have illegitimate kids. Alicent never had that freedom because she was always part of an institution built to control her, and one of the most effective ways it controlled her was by denying her ownership of her own body.

My heart breaks for Alicent. Time and again she's forced into situations where she has to reclaim herself after men have taken something from her, and only now, after everything she has endured, does she allow herself to even dream of a measure of freedom. Her broken, disbelieving "what?!" as she realizes what Jasper is about to do will haunt me for a long time, along with the fact that she screams, fights back, struggles to break free, but not even once cries out for help out of fear of humiliation. The silence she tries to maintain, her effort to fight this again alone, reveals just how deeply conditioned Alicent is, how instinctively she internalizes shame, and how familiar violation has become to her. Even when Orwyle enters the room, the overwhelming emotion on her face is relief laced with humiliation, as though she believes she has somehow "allowed" herself to be used again and she should be ashamed for it.

and another inevitability of this narrative to me is aegon's death and the central role i think alicent has to play. rumours abound in f&b as to who does it but for this show, for this story, alicent has to be the hand at which he meets his end.

what is aegon truly if not the very physical manifestation of Alicent's duty, created from her very flesh and blood. the son viserys wanted so badly, the boy otto sought after so much he shoved his daughter into marriage with a man old enough to be her father, the son alicent schemed and plotted to put on the throne because she believed it was her duty to heed a dying man's words (not matter that it was a misunderstanding). aegon is the symbol of the rift between rhaenyra and alicent, the first crack in the fissure.

and the love that alicent and rhaenyra share persists throughout the entirety of the show, beyond reason in the minds of other characters, none of them able to grasp the nature of it. otto and aemond and aegon consistently accusing alicent of her love for rhaenyra, jace pleading with his mother to not trust a word alicent says, rhaenyra sparing alicent's life when she retakes kings landing

what kills aegon if not that persisting love that exists between them?

what sees rhaenyra's blood on the throne if not alicent herself?